BeagleBone Blue Quadcopter Drone - Need help

Question

Hello Everyone,

I would like to use the BeagleBone Blue as the flight controller of my quadcopter drone and run ardupilotblue.

https://github.com/mirkix/ardupilotblue

The Brushless Motor Speed Control that I am using is the Racestar 20A 4in1 ESC mentioned in this parts list.

https://www.hackster.io/jkridner/beaglebone-blue-220mm-quadcopter-9801d8

I've been following guidance of these links and this tutorial but I've run into a few issues with construction.

https://github.com/imfatant/test

First question, Is this Propeller Layout correct in this photo?

The orange props are the front/nose of the drone and black props at the rear.

The orange props have leading edge facing inwards and with the black props the trailing edge is facing inwards to the body.

My terminology and setup might be completely incorrect. For safety reasons the first test will be performed without the propellers attached.

In which direction should the ESC be oriented on the the chassis?

And Is the label side of ESC board meant to face upwards with the plug facing front of the drone?

Also, Which pins from the esc should be connected to the BeagleBone Blue?

I would like to mount the ESC to the bottom of the drone as shown in the photo below.

I'm unsure if the ESC should be facing label side upward and which direction the control wiring plug should be facing in orientation to the front of the drone.

The Lipo Battery will be located in the center of frame.

There will be a small First Person View Camera and transmitter in the nose with 5V power supplied from the BB Blue.

The BeagleBone Blue will be secured to the top deck with the onboard IMU chip at dead center.

I am waiting for the FPV Cam/Transmitter and Ublox M8N GPS to arrive tomorrow.

When complete this BB Blue Drone will be running ArduPilotBlue and will be carrying a GoPro Hero 5 Session on flights.

Thanks for your time reading this post and for any help.

Trent

ninjatrent

shabaz · Accepted Answer

Hi Trent, Quite surprising how elsewhere on the Internet this project doesn't have a single overall solution diagram or wiring diagram, or a single photo showing such detail. It looks like the original source of those diagrams is here: Connect ESCs and Motors — Copter documentation According to that, the number inside the green and blue circles are the " connected autopilot output pin " . The ESC will map the S1..4 signals to the M1..4 motors respectively, so for simplicity I suggest each circled number could be connected to the corresponding M number on the ESC. Then, label the connectors that will go to the BBB end with the same numbers 1..4, and test with them inserted in the order 1,2,3,4, since apparently the software has a test function which has buttons for Test A..D. The diagrams at the link above show what number motor should correspond to A..D, for the Quad + and Quad X etc formations. At that stage (i.e. with no propellers attached), you'll be able to swap the connectors at the BBB end until you've got the motors matching to what the software expects. Then, confirm the rotation directions are correct. If they are not, the motor wires need swapping (pick any two of the three wires to the motor, and swap them). So, all this should get the correct motors spinning in the correct directions - I hope! Please do document it when it works : )

Fred27 · Answer

The props look like they match the setup in the Quad X Diagram to me. They will be providing lift when rotating in the direction shown in that diagram. The orientation of the ESC shouldn't matter. The IMU on the other hand does need to be orientated correctly.

shabaz · Answer

Hi Trent, It is great to see all your excellent photos. The motors can be wired any way, the connections are symmetrical (i.e. all of the three wires looks the same electrically, each correspond to one end of three windings (the other end is common inside the motor and not accessible). The direction of rotation will depend on the order, but it may be hard to identify that from the motor/wire markings. So, the solution is to wire them up in any order, and see which direction it turns. If the direction is wrong, then any two wires can be swapped around (it doesn't matter which two you select from the three) and the direction of rotation will reverse.

BeagleBone Blue Quadcopter Drone - Need help

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